Some Conservatives Aren’t Happy About Rand Paul’s Comments on Russia

Yesterday Jennifer Rubin responded to comments
made by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on the turmoil in Ukraine and
America’s relationship with Russia.

Rubin’s column, which has the headline “Rand
Paul defends Putin, earns scorn from the right,” highlights how
alone Paul is in the GOP when it comes to foreign policy, and
suggests that Paul’s opinions on U.S.-Russian relations are in
conflict “with virtually all members of the U.S. Senate.”

Rubin goes on to say that House offices were reluctant to
comment on Paul’s opinions on Russia, and quotes one unnamed aide
who said that Paul has “got the perfect foreign policy for the
Victorian era.” Rubin does not mention whether she reached out to
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) or Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (R-N.C.), the
only two members of the House to vote against H RES 447, a bill
“Supporting the democratic and European aspirations of the people
of the Ukraine, and their right to choose their own future free of
intimidation and fear.”

Rubin quotes the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka
and Freedom House’s David Kramer, who both unsurprisingly don’t
quite see eye-to-eye with Paul on foreign policy.

If you read what Paul said about Russia in his recent interview
with The Washington Post, it is clear that to describe his
statements as some sort of defense of Putin is a stretch.

Speaking to the Post, Paul said that the U.S.
should have a “respectful relationship with Russia” and that we
should be proud that the relationship we do have with the Kremlin
is better than it once was.

From the Post:

“We still need to be conscious of the fact that Russia has
intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he said. “Though the Cold War
is largely over, I think we need to have a respectful – sometimes
adversarial – but a respectful relationship with Russia.”

“I think we should have trade and relations, criticize them if
they have human rights violations,” he said. “But for the most
part, we should be very glad that we’ve gotten beyond such a tense
situation that we’re worried that any minute we could have a
nuclear war. We ought to be, I think, proud of where we’ve gotten
with that relationship, and even when we have problems with Russia,
realize that we’re in a much better place than we were once upon a
time.”

Encouraging a working diplomatic relationship with a country is
different from coming to the defense of that country’s awful
policies. Indeed, Paul notes in the quote above that the U.S.
should criticize governments “if they have human rights
violations.”

In his interview with the Post, Paul notes that some in
the GOP are “stuck in the Cold War era.” While America’s
relationship with Russia is far from ideal, policy makers should
resist falling back into the mentality that dominated American
policy towards the Kremlin for decades.

As Sheldon Richman
noted earlier today at Reason.com, the ongoing turmoil in
Ukraine is not the business of the U.S. government:

It is none of the U.S. government’s business whether that
country is economically closer to Russia or the European Union
(EU). The Obama administration should not only forswear direct and
covert intervention, it should also shut up. American presidents
must learn to mind their own business, even where Russia is
concerned.

Read more from Reason.com on Ukraine and Russia here and here.